Food

11:15 am

Mon April 30, 2012

Washington's Asparagus Farmers Face Labor Shortage

Jim Middleton is a asparagus farmer north of Pasco. He’s had to disk under 15 acres of asparagus in the hopes he can get someone to help harvest next week. Photo by Anna King

ELTOPIA, Wash. – Washington asparagus farmers are plowing out giant fields during what should be the prime of their harvest season. That’s because there is a shortage of migrant farmworkers this year.

To cut asparagus, workers have to hunch and shuffle as they slice the spears from the earth with a sharp knife. Still, usually plenty of people are willing to do it.

But Jim Middleton can’t get 15 acres of his asparagus North of Pasco harvested this week. He says other farmers are taking out their asparagus fields for good.

“We weren’t expecting to have a labor shortage this year, at least I wasn’t," Middleton says. "We’ve been tight for the last five years or so but we’ve always been able to find enough, maybe just barely enough –- until this year.”

Asparagus harvest is often an indication of how much labor will be available later in the growing season. A recent Pew Hispanic Center study says Mexican immigration to the U.S. has dropped sharply in part because of the down economy and stricter federal immigration enforcement.